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“You can’t come to Liverpool Football Club and play a direct game of football,
lumping-it style.”

With that one line, Brendan Rodgers met the first and most basic requirement
of any Liverpool manager: to be true to the principles of a club who pride
themselves on pass-and-move football.

When Bill Shankly outlined the philosophy that would set the club on the path
to greatness, he also established a blueprint for his successors. “Football
is a simple game based on the giving and taking of passes, of controlling
the ball and of making yourself available to receive a pass,” he said.